5.6 Movement and Positioning

This section describes how creatures move and position themselves in combat.

5.6.1 Move Actions

During each movement phase, you can use one move action. You can also move during the action phase with the sprint ability (see Sprint), or by taking a move action in place of your standard action. Most move actions change your location on the battlefield.

5.6.2 Movement Speed

If an ability references your “speed” without additional details, it is referring to your movement speed. Your total movement speed is normally equal to your base speed, which is derived from your size (see ??). Some abilities can modify your movement speed. At the start of each phase, your available movement speed becomes equal to your total movement speed. Any movement you make during that phase subtracts from your available movement speed until it reaches 0.

Almost all creatures have a walking movement mode, which represents their ability to move across mostly flat terrain. For details about other forms of movement, such as flying and swimming, see Movement Modes.

You can take free actions and minor actions in the middle of movement. For example, you can walk up to a door, open it, and continue through the door (see Manipulating Objects).

5.6.3 Movement Abilities

Almost all creatures can use these abilities to move around a battlefield. The most common movement ability is hustle, which simply moves you to a location. You could think of characters as using the hustle ability whenever they move while not actively engaged in combat, but it’s not generally useful to think about narrative movements in terms of combat abilities.

Other movement abilities are reactive, allowing you to move automatically in response to the movement of other creatures. For example, you can try to follow a creature wherever it goes that round. In all cases, if you run out of movement speed before accomplishing your intended task, you simply stop where you ran out of movement.

The block, follow, and withdraw reactive abilities are specifically described below. However, you can come up with other reactive movements. The main requirement is that a reactive movement must have a simple criteria for determining how you move based on easily observable events. Secondarily, reactive movements should be simple to resolve. If you find yourself rolling a lot of initiative checks to get through the movement phase, you’re probably trying to make overly complicated movements.

5.6.4 Movement Modes

A movement mode is a method of moving from one location to another. The most common movement mode is walking, which allows creatures to move across the ground. In addition, some abilities grant creatures the ability to move in unusual ways. These forms of movement are described here. Each of your movement modes has an associated speed category (see Movement Speed).

Burrowing: A creature with a burrow speed can move through solid dirt and loose earth in any direction, even vertically. Unless otherwise noted, a burrow speed does not allow a creature to travel through rock or harder substances. It does not leave behind a usable tunnel for other creatures.

While burrowing, the earth and dirt around you usually blocks line of sight and line of effect, preventing you from using ranged attacks of any kind. You can partially emerge from a surface while burrowing. While partially emerged, you have cover against all attacks but can otherwise fight normally.

Climbing: A creature with a climb speed can move along vertical surfaces. It must still make a Climb check to move in challenging conditions, such as slippery walls (see Climb). A creature that is climbing without a climb speed takes a -2 penalty to its accuracy and Armor and Reflex defenses.

Flying: A creature with a fly speed can fly through the air both horizontally and vertically. Flying is more complicated than some other movement modes. For details, see Aerial Movement.

Gliding: A creature with a glide speed can glide through the air in a strictly descending path. Gliding is more complicated than some other movement modes. For details, see Aerial Movement.

Swimming: A creature with a swim speed can move through liquids like water. It must still make a Swim check to move in challenging conditions, such as stormy seas (see Swim). A creature that is in water without a swim speed takes a -2 penalty to its accuracy and Armor and Reflex defenses. For details, see Fighting In Water.

Walking: A creature with a walk speed can move across mostly flat surfaces, like the ground.

5.6.5 Speed Categories

A creature may move particularly slowly with one movement mode and more quickly with a different movement mode. There are three speed categories: fast, average, and slow. If an ability gives you an alternate movement mode and doesn’t specify a speed category, you move at average speed with that movement mode.

• Fast: Moving 10 feet with this movement mode costs 5 feet from the creature’s speed. The first square costs 5 feet of speed, and then it gets the second square for free. When moving on diagonals, the first two diagonals each cost 5 feet of speed and the third one is free.
• Average: Moving 5 feet with this movement mode costs 5 feet from the creature’s speed. When moving on diagonals, the first diagonal costs 5 feet of movement and the second costs 10.
• Slow: Moving 5 feet with this movement mode costs 10 feet from the creature’s speed. When moving on diagonals, each diagonal costs 15 feet of movement.

5.6.6 Combining Movement Modes

You can move using multiple different movement modes in the same phase in any order. Each distance moved subtracts from your available speed during that phase, using the appropriate modifiers for fast or slow movement modes.

For example, assume you have a 40 foot base speed, a average walk speed, and a slow swim speed. If you swim 10 feet, that would cost 20 feet of movement. You could then use your remaining speed to walk 20 feet, for a total of 30 feet travelled.

5.6.7 Jumping

Creatures with legs can jump as part of movement. When you jump, choose a destination square where your jump ends. You must be touching a solid surface to jump.

A jump’s maximum horizontal distance is normally equal to a quarter of your base speed plus 5 feet per 2 Strength. If you are trained with the Jump skill, the distance you add from your Strength is instead equal to 5 feet per Strength, to a minimum of +5 feet. A jump’s maximum vertical height is equal to half your maximum horizontal distance.

If your destination square is in midair, you do not start falling until the next phase (see Falling Damage). This allows you to jump during the movement phase and act in midair during the action phase. Unlike normal for being midair, you do not suffer penalties to your Armor and Reflex defense for being partway through a jump that you initiated. Narratively, this represents you timing your jump so you can take a useful action while jumping. You don’t just hover in midair.

5.6.8 Jumping Speed Limits

The maximum distance that you can travel by jumping is equal to your remaining speed during the current phase. This distance is measured only for the farthest extent that you travel from your starting location, not for a round trip or for the entire distance travelled along the arc of your jump. For example, if your speed is thirty feet and you start by walking ten feet, you can jump no more than twenty feet forward, or fifteen feet forward and five feet vertically, and so on. If your jump distance is extremely high and your speed is low, you may need to use the sprint ability to make use of your full jumping potential (see Sprint).

5.6.9 Measuring Movement

For simplicity, all movement in combat is measured in five-foot increments. While it is possible to be more precise than that, it’s generally not worth the complexity.

Squares: Area is commonly measured in 5-ft. by 5-ft. spaces called squares. A single square represents the area occupied by a single humanoid creature in combat. Sometimes, movement and distance are represented by the number of squares travelled. A 30-ft. movement is the same thing as moving six squares.

Diagonals: When measuring distance, the first diagonal counts as five feet of movement, and the second counts as ten feet of movement. The third costs five feet, the fourth costs ten feet, and so on. You can move diagonally past corners and enemies.

5.6.10 Movement Impediments

Difficult Terrain: Some terrain is hard to move through, like thick bushes or a swamp. If a square is difficult terrain, it increases the movement cost required to move out of the square by 5 feet.

If a square is considered difficult terrain for multiple reasons, the cost increases stack. For example, a square in a swamp that also has thick bushes blocking your passage would cost 10 extra feet of movement to leave.

Exceptionally large creatures can ignore ordinary difficult terrain. In general, a Huge or larger creature does not treat heavy undergrowth or shallow water as difficult terrain. However, at the GM’s discretion, they may still treat small trees or deeper water as difficult terrain.

Obstacles: An obstacle is anything that gets in your way. Enemies and large solid objects like walls completely block your movement, preventing you from entering space they occupy. Some abilities can allow you to move through spaces occupied by enemies, which means you do not treat them as obstacles.

Undergrowth: Vines, roots, bushes, and similar plants can obstruct sight and impede movement. There are two kinds of undergrowth: light undergrowth and heavy undergrowth.

Light Undergrowth: Light undergrowth provides concealment.

Heavy Undergrowth: Heavy undergrowth provides concealment and is difficult terrain, which increases the movement cost required to move out of each square by 5 feet.

5.6.11 Squeezing

In some cases, you may have to squeeze into or through an area that isn’t as wide as the space you take up. You can squeeze through or into a space that is at least half as wide as your normal space. While squeezing (-2 Armor and Ref), you take a -2 penalty to your Armor and Reflex defenses. You can squeeze into tighter spaces with the Flexibility skill (see Flexibility).

Squeezing is only checked at the start of each phase. If you temporarily enter a creature’s space during a phase and leave it during that same phase, neither you nor that creature are ever squeezing.

Creatures that take up multiple squares take up half their normal number of squares while squeezing. For example, a Large creature who normally takes up four spaces takes up two spaces while squeezing.

Squeezing in Shared Space

Sometimes, one creature can end its movement inside the space occupied by another creature. If the creatures are within one size category of each other, this means that both of them are squeezing. Likewise, if you end your movement inside the space of a physical obstacle, you are squeezing with it.

5.6.12 Forced Movement

Some abilities can physically move you against your will. Effects that limit movement speed, such as difficult terrain, similarly limit the distance you can be moved by forced movement effects. There are two kinds of forced movement: push effects and fling effects. Unless otherwise noted, all forced movement effects move the target in a single straight horizontal line.

Push Effects

A creature affected by a push effect is being pushed by a constant force. It normally travels in a single straight line, unless the pushing effect says otherwise. If it encounters an obstacle, the push ends without causing harm to the creature or the obstacle. Similarly, if a creature being pushed stops being supported and would fall, it falls instead of being pushed further.

When a creature would fall while being pushed, it automatically makes a reactive check with the Climb skill to avoid falling. The Climb check is made against the closest available stable object, such as the edge of a cliff. Success means that the creature does not fall, but is now hanging on the edge, making it unsteady (-2 accuracy, Armor, Brawn, Ref) if it does not have a climb speed. This can allow creatures pushed off the edge of a cliff to grab the edge of the cliff.

Fling Effects

A creature affected by a fling effect is thrown backwards by a single point of impact. It always travels in a single straight line. If it encounters an obstacle, the fling ends. Both the creature and the obstacle take 1d8 damage per 10 feet of movement remaining.

Unless otherwise noted, a fling effect can move a creature in any direction, even vertically. A creature moving as a result of a fling effect does not have to be supported during the movement by solid ground. This can allow you to fling creatures off of cliffs without allowing them to save themselves. If you fling a creature vertically, it is typically unsteady (-2 accuracy, Armor, Brawn, Ref) until it lands at the end of the round.